IT Engineer or Food Courier? South Asian Students in Finland
Ajmal, Vikram and Aadi arrive in Finland in 2012. They have a one-year limited scholarship to study for a Master’s degree in Information Technology. All three complete their coursework during the first year. After the scholarship ends, their trajectories begin to diverge.
Ajmal moves to another city and starts delivering newspapers early in the morning to cover his living expenses while continuing to learn Finnish and apply for IT jobs.
Vikram, whose family can provide financial support if needed, stays in the smaller university town and eventually manages to secure funding for his Master’s thesis at the university.
Aadi, who is married and has financial obligations to financially support his family back home, moves to another city and starts working full time in a restaurant.
Ten years later, Ajmal and Vikram hold Master’s degrees and work as senior developers in reputable IT firms in Finland. Aadi, however, is working as a chef in a Helsinki restaurant. He never finished his studies.
Situations like this made me reflect on how different forms of transnational support, financial obligations, and family expectations can shape the economic integration and career pathways of international students
How Remittances Shape Economic Integration of South Asian Students in Finland
Finland has become an increasingly attractive destination for international students in recent years, particularly from South Asia. Many of these students arrive with strong educational backgrounds and ambitions to build careers in high-skilled sectors such as information technology or engineering. However, the everyday realities of student life often look quite different.
In many Finnish cities international students work in the service sector or the gig economy, for example delivering food. Why do some international students eventually move into professional careers while others remain in precarious “odd jobs”, even when they have similar qualifications?
My recent article examines this puzzle through the experiences of Indian and Pakistani student migrants in Finland. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork and life-story interviews with South Asian students who are navigating the transition from study to work.
Migration as a family project
The main finding is that migration for higher education is rarely only an individual project. In many cases it is embedded in wider family strategies and expectations.
Families often make significant investments to support students’ education abroad, paying tuition fees, contributing to living costs, or helping with migration expenses. In this sense, migration is a collective family project aimed at long-term social mobility.
At the same time, students often feel strong obligations towards their families back home. Some students receive financial support from home, while others try to send money back whenever possible. These financial exchanges form part of broader transnational support networks that connect migrants and their families across borders.
Working while studying: necessity over choice
Because of financial responsibilities, many students begin working soon after arriving in Finland. Food delivery, restaurant work, cleaning, and other forms of casual labour offer relatively quick access to income and flexible working hours. For students who must pay tuition fees, rent, and other living expenses, these jobs can become an important survival strategy.
However, this situation also creates a difficult balance. Students must manage their academic responsibilities while working long hours in jobs that are often physically demanding and unrelated to their fields of study.
The “odd-job visa trap”
This dynamic can sometimes create what I describe as an “odd-job visa trap.”
Students often take these jobs in order to maintain financial stability and secure legal status during their studies. Over time, however, the need to continue earning income may limit the time and energy available for activities that are crucial for long-term career development, such as internships, networking, or building professional experience in their field.
As a result, some students remain in precarious forms of work longer than expected, even when they possess qualifications in highly skilled fields such as IT or engineering.
Looking at integration from the migrants’ perspective
Conceptually, the article builds on a bottom-up perspective on integration, focusing on how student migrants themselves interpret and negotiate their pathways in Finland.
Rather than understanding economic integration only through labour-market statistics or policy frameworks, the research pays attention to how migrants make decisions in everyday situations under conditions of uncertainty.
Many students develop what might be described as “comfort zones” in uncertain labour markets. Gig-economy jobs may be unstable, but they offer flexibility, immediate income, and a degree of control over working hours. For students trying to balance studies, work, and family responsibilities across borders, this flexibility can be very important.
At the same time, these choices are not purely individual. They are shaped by expectations, obligations, and forms of support that circulate between migrants and their families.
Rethinking student migrants’ economic integration
The broader argument of the article is that the economic integration of international students cannot be understood only through host-country factors such as labour markets, migration policies, or discrimination.
Students’ career trajectories are also embedded in transnational family economies. Financial obligations, remittances, and expectations from home influence how students prioritise work, studies, and long-term career plans.
Recognising these transnational dynamics helps us better understand why the pathways of international students can diverge significantly—even among those who share similar educational backgrounds and professional aspirations.
The journey from IT engineer to food courier, and sometimes back again, therefore reflects not only labour-market conditions in Finland but also the complex family relationships that shape migration decisions and everyday life across borders.
This blog post is based on recently published research paper by Zain Abdin.
